Even though verse 7 ended with the young woman speaking, it may be helpful to put another note at the beginning of this new section, to remind readers that she is still speaking.

The voice of my beloved is one possible rendering of the Hebrew phrase used here, though voice can also be rendered “sound.” Scholars generally agree that the noun voice is used as an attention-getting interjection meaning “Listen!” Since the following noun phrase my beloved lacks any verb, it is difficult to determine whether the young woman is simply identifying who it is she is calling, or whether she is describing the one she hears. The latter seems more appropriate. A translation such as “Listen! It’s my lover!” or “Listen! I hear my lover coming!” conveys the sense well. New English Bible and New American Bible agree, though there are other translations that treat the phrase in narrative fashion, such as Good News Translation “I hear my lover’s voice.”

Behold, he comes calls attention to the young man’s approach. We cannot be certain whether the young woman is describing what is actually taking place. From inside the house it is not likely that she can hear him running over the hills. Also the reference to leaping over hills and mountains is deliberately exaggerated for poetic effect.

Behold (hinneh) is a word with many functions in Hebrew. It appears on the lips of the young woman here and in verses 8 and 9. The young man repeats the word in verse 11. Throughout Old Testament texts it is used to draw attention to a thing or person, but it can also convey deep emotion (either sorrow or joy) and sometimes surprise. Here there is no doubt; it conveys the young woman’s anticipation and excitement over her lover’s arrival. (In verse 11 it carries a more demonstrative function as the young man points out the beauties of the springtime.) We can use any equivalent expression in the translation: “Look, he’s coming!” “Listen! here he comes!” The use of an exclamation point can help to show in the printed text the emotive quality of this word.

Leaping … bounding: a series of participles begins as the young woman tells of her lover’s approach. She is so in tune with him that she knows he is on his way to her, and she gives a poetic description of his coming. Exaggerated metaphor is used—leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills. Both verbs used in these phrases are in the emphatic form and so match the intensity she feels. The first verb leaping is a commonly-used verb. This is not so of the second verb bounding. This is its only occurrence with this meaning in the Old Testament. Poetry allows the young woman to speak in this fashion to help the reader know something of the excitement she feels at his coming. Translators should aim to convey this emotion. There may be special verb forms, ideophones, or particles that the translator can use to achieve this goal. Note how in English the “-ing” form of verbs can add this touch.

Mountains and hills are traditionally parallel terms in psalms (Psa 148.9) and in the prophets (Isa 40.4). In languages that have a highly developed vocabulary for hills and mountains, the translator is free to choose terms that can be used in pairs. On the other hand, in situations where there is no term for mountains, translators may need to use a more general expression and combine the two phrases into one.

Possible translations are:

• Listen, it’s my lover! Here he comes! He leaps over the mountains; he jumps over the hills.

• Can you hear? My lover is coming, leaping over mountains and hills.

If we want to try to maintain some of the parallelism:

• Listen, it’s my lover!
Look, here he comes!
Leaping over the mountains,
Jumping over the hills!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .